2 Corinthians chapter 10. I bring you greetings from your
brothers and sisters who gather at Sovereign Grace Chapel in
Crow, West Virginia. And we are so Appalachian that
that is C-R-O-W, not C-R-O-W-E. We are like the unclean bird.
That's where we gather. We're a little bit east of Beckley,
West Virginia. Some of you may know where that's
at. I have a song I want to read to you this morning. My beloved
brother, Joe Galusik, who is a fellow pastor at Sovereign
Grace Chapel, generally sends me a song either on Saturday
evening, Sunday morning, and wherever I'm preaching, if he
does send me a song, try to read it to those I'm about to preach
the gospel to. This is by Samuel Medley. He was a Presbyterian minister
in the 1600s in England. And the title of his song is
this, All My Springs Are In Thee. taken from Psalms 87 in verse
7, and this is what he wrote. I wish I could read it with the
cadence of the psalm, but I'm not able to do this, so you all
bear with me. Now, dearest Lord, to praise thy name. Let all our
powers agree, worthy art thou of endless fame, our springs
are all in thee. Here in thy love will we rejoice,
all sovereign, rich and free, singing we hope with heart and
voice, our springs are all in thee. "'To whom, dear Jesus,
O to whom shall needy sinners flee? "'But to thyself who bids
us come to thee, "'our springs are all in thee. "'Some tempted,
weak, and trembling saint, "'before thee now may be. "'Let not his
hopes or wishes faint, "'his springs are all in thee. "'The poor supply, the wounded
heal, let sinners such as we, salvations, blessings, taste
and feel, our springs are all in thee. When we arrive at Zion's
hill, and all thy glory see, our joyful songs shall echo still,
our springs are all in thee. In other words, By God's grace, when we get to
glory, it still will all be about Christ. It still will all be
about Christ. I want to thank Johnny and Rhonda
for the meal and the fellowship yesterday. And I thank Carl for
doing what he did, coming and opening everything up. And Johnny's
going to get the blame for this. It was kind of late when I called
Carl to let him hook the cable back up. So I give Johnny the
blame. Because I looked down at my, it was having such a good
fellowship, and I looked and I thought, oh, it's getting late.
But we do thank you all. Thank you all for the lodging.
You have a wonderful place back there. I could live in a place
like that. I have one other question. Let
me give you one other thing here. This is by John Flavel, or some
say Flavel, I don't know which way you pronounce it, that doesn't
matter. Brief quote, did Christ finish His work for us? Then
there can be no doubt, but He will also finish His work in
us. I like that. These things are wondrous, but
they still sometimes vex my soul. All right, are you in 2 Corinthians
chapter 10? 2 Corinthians chapter 10. Now this is not actually a part
of my message, but I did want this to go out on some things
that are being recorded and going out live, I believe it is. Religion often penchants certain
things that you cannot do if you're a believer. In other words,
If this person were really a believer, they could not have done that.
You know what I'm saying? They're always picking and choosing. The amazing thing is the list
varies so much between different peoples and denominations. I
say, okay, okay. Here are a few things a believer
cannot do, just a few. A believer cannot exalt Christ
too highly. A believer cannot love Christ
too much. A believer cannot seek Christ too often. A believer
cannot repent too much. A believer cannot believe too
strongly. A believer cannot hate sin too
strongly. A believer cannot love one another
too selflessly. A believer cannot give too cheerfully. A believer cannot reject a false
gospel too strongly. Do you get the point? You see,
they wanna talk about what a believer cannot do but rarely ever is
it truly to the honor and the glory of Christ and his gospel.
All right, 2 Corinthians 10. 2 Corinthians 10, I want to read
just the first six verses. Now I, Paul, myself, beseech
you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ, who in presence am
base among you, but being absent and bold toward you. I beseech
you that I may not be bold when I am present with that confidence,
wherewith I think to be bold against some which think of us
as if we walked according to the flesh. For though we walk
in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh. For the weapons of
our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling
down of strongholds. casting down imaginations and
every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge
of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience
of Christ, and having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience when
your obedience is fulfilled. The salvation of a soul, and
when I say that, I mean the salvation of a person. I'm not talking
about just a person, a person's inward immaterial self. The salvation
of a person, an individual, and you know this here, is not walking
an aisle. It is not making a decision.
It is not this easy believism that we see so often promoted
today. The salvation of an individual
is not, I didn't say it's mostly not, it's sometimes not, it is
not this thing we hear. Repeat this prayer after me. That is nothing more than ritualism. might as well put the Pope's
miter on your head as to engage in such actions as that, and
to call it the salvation of God. Matter of fact, let me be so
bold as to say that the salvation of an individual is more violent
than that, spiritually speaking. That's right, I said violent
than that. I'm not talking about physical
force. I'm not talking about what Rome has done in the past
and others as well, bringing men and women to some public
confession of faith or belief through the edge of the sword.
I'm not talking about that. But in our text, Paul uses military
language. Paul speaks of warfare. War, strongholds, weapons, captivity,
subjection. I've never been there. Some of
you men may have been. I thank God for you if you have.
But war is violent. And false religion has made this
thing called salvation to be so easy. they've lost sight of
the truth of the powerful, sovereign God of heaven and earth. Let
me bring it, it was probably so in Paul's day, but any of
you all like to watch movies or shows about medieval days
and the big castles, you know, and you had knights and all of
this stuff? Well, consider the language here. We can see this
citadel, this castle, has ramparts, has a drawbridge, maybe even
a moat, and all the accompaniments that goes with a large castle.
But then you see an army march against that castle. And what
happens? Oh, they may cry out one time,
we'll give you one chance to surrender. But nobody ever did. I've studied a little history.
I don't find out where anybody just gave up. There's always
a fight. There's always resistance. There's
always, we will not bow to you. And then this opposing army that
has gathered around this castle begins to shoot volleys of flaming
arrows, catapults of boiling oil. spattering rams. Why? They're going to assault
the castle. They're going to bring down the
strongholds, and they're marching into that citadel to bring its
subjects into captivity. That's what Paul calls the salvation
of God. My subject and title this morning
is this, Pulling Down Strongholds. The effect. And I want you to
notice I said the effect. There are many parts of this
battle, but it is for one effect. First of all, and I'm not, I'm
just not going to even go back over it in verses one and two. I will summarize true gospel
combatants, true gospel preachers, true gospel ministers are not
pushovers. They are not pushovers. Read
again sometime what Paul said to these people. There are some
that are accusing us of walking in the flesh. He said, when I
return, they'll see. They'll see. Somebody asked me
one time, what do you think are some of the characteristics of
a good pastor? I said, well, one is to preach
Christ. That's gotta, that's a must. If you don't preach Christ,
forget it. But he gotta, second one is,
he gotta have a backbone like a saw log. Because this, my brothers
and sisters, is a war. It's a war. And it's a war fought
for the souls of men and women. King Jesus does reign. It's still a warfare. True gospel combatants are not
pushovers, but also this, true gospel warfare is not carnal
combat, it is spiritual combat. It does take place in outward
overt things, such as what I'm doing this morning. And someone
says, why? because it pleased God by the
foolishness of preaching. And that's the only reason we
really need to know. If it pleases God, do it. Just do it. But what if? Just
do it. What if somebody don't like it?
Just do it. What if nobody ever believes
it? Just do it. Because if God's pleased in it,
That's good enough. Here's the third thing. Now move
through this quickly because I want to get to the last point. True gospel warfare has weapons,
but they are not carnal either. A lot of people today use psychology,
philosophy, all of these things. Now these weapons, Paul mentions
none of them in particular in the text. Paul does detail these
weapons' effect. And that's our meat today. That's
what I want to get in and dig into, the effect. But let me
mention some of these weapons. They are mentioned throughout
the scripture. And I am bold enough to say this. The first
weapon in this warfare is God the Spirit. because even the
preaching of the gospel will be to no spiritual benefit if
it is not first attended by the power of the Spirit of God. If all you hear is my words this
morning, whether you're saved or lost, Unregenerate or regenerate,
converted or unconverted, if all you hear are my words, these
words, even if they are the truth of God, will be of no benefit
to your soul, unless God the Spirit is in attendance with
it. Some of these weapons, as I said,
God the Spirit, and that's foremost. Oh, God meet with us today. And I can't pray that down, I
can't work it up. That's all up to Him. But here's
another, and I'm sure there are many. The Holy Scripture, the
Holy Scripture, these are one of these weapons, with its rebukes,
its reproofs, its encouragements, and its promises, and we can
go on and on and on. But in particular, In this weapon
called Holy Scripture, the main battering ram is this, the gospel
of the cross of Christ. For it, for it, that is the gospel,
is the power of God, the dynamite. Isn't that the word? We get our
word dynamite from that Greek word, what is dynamos or whatever
it is. Now can you see the gospel minister shooting volleys of
dynamite against the castle wall? What's that for? To knock that
wall down. King Jesus will march in and
put his foot on the neck of the subject of that castle and subject
them to his obedience. Don't sound like just come up
to the front and pray this prayer to me. Does it to you? Huh? Sound
like you sit back there and I preach and then we sing 200 verses of
Just As I Am. Finally, somebody gives in because
they want to go home and decides to go forward to end this whole
thing. I've seen that happen, folk. Somebody just get 15 verses
of Just As I Am. God help us. God help us. The gospel of Christ. The Word
of God is said to be what? A sword. Yea, a two-edged sword. So that means it does, it cuts
both ways. Relentless. Relentless. Relentless. It cuts and it cuts
and it cuts and it cuts. And it pierces even the dividing
of the soul, the inner being of a man. I'll tell you this,
whether you're regenerate or unregenerate, when you hear the
gospel preaching its truth, your flesh will revoke. Your flesh
will revoke. And you will cry out, at least
in here, in your subconsciousness, maybe you might not even know
you're conscientiously doing this, but you will cry out, I
will not have that man to reign over me. The unregenerate, the
uncircumcised heart and ears, what did Stephen say? They always
resist. That means God's gotta do something
for you first before you ever quit resisting. But bless God,
somebody's gonna quit resisting. Somebody's gonna quit resisting.
Is that resisting or resisting? Sorry, that's my West Virginia
dialect coming through. All right, let's look at this.
Here it is. Here's what I want to zero in on. The effect of these
weapons are defined. Okay? The effect, singular effect. If what you call your salvation,
if what I call my salvation doesn't have at least this effect, your
castle wall's never been assaulted by King Jesus. And I'll give
it to you here in a moment. But before I do, I've got, pardon
me, I've got about five things here to give you in this. But
before I even go, I'm gonna jump to the fifth one and just state
it. This warfare is no one-time event. Paul say? I'm going to, we'll
read what he said, but I'm paraphrasing it very loosely, but it's what
he's talking about. And having in a readiness to revenge all
disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled. In other words,
this ain't a one time thing. You don't come forward and confess
Christ publicly and even go into the waters of baptism and think
this warfare is all over. Because when King Jesus knocks
down your castle walls and grinds every stone of that castle wall
into powder, every particle of powder still cries out with pride
and ego and self-will. And you know what my flesh does?
It tries to start building the castle wall up again. So God has to constantly, constantly,
constantly batter our castle walls, bring us into subjection
to Christ. And we think, wouldn't it have
been great if when God saved us, all of our problems ceased?
But the fact is, when God Almighty saves us by the preaching of
His gospel, that's when all of your problems start. And that's
just a fact. Somebody says, preacher, that
will scare people off. Yeah, maybe it will. But if King
Jesus assaults their castle wall, it'll come down. It'll come down. So here we're talking about the
effect. One, castle walls are assaulted and demolished. They're
broken down. They're crumbled up. Verse four,
look, but mighty through God, the last part of verse four,
to the pulling down. strongholds. What are these castle walls?
What are these strongholds? Here's what they are. And I know
this from the preponderant testimony of God's Word, but I also know
this from experience in here, personal opinions. That's part
of this. Here's some of the stones that
we build up our castle walls with, personal opinions. Ever
heard it? Ever said it? Well, I know what
I think. I hear that all the time. Begin to speak to somebody,
just quote them a scripture. I mean, quote it directly from
the holy word of God. And they said, but I know what
I think. What you think doesn't matter. What I think doesn't
matter. And we build up our castle walls
with personal opinions and presumptions. But Paul said that in this warfare,
there will be the casting down of imaginations. You see, religion
is caught up with the out here, the overt, immoral things of
humanity. And don't get me wrong, Don't get me wrong, because of
those things, the wrath of God comes down upon the children
of disobedience. But you can be a seriously moral
person, a decent person when compared to other persons. You
may be better than some other persons, but we've got a problem. It's up in here. God said, your
thoughts are not my thoughts. This problem is connected. It's
connected to a me down in here. It's called the heart in the
scripture, but it's not this muscle that pumps blood. The
heart is what makes me me. And what does the book say about
our heart? It is desperately wicked above all things. Out of the abundance of the heart,
our mouths show what's in us. Out of the abundance of the heart,
the mouth speaketh God Almighty. in the preaching of His gospel
by the power of His Spirit, brings down, tears down personal opinions,
presumptions, or what men think about a subject. A stronghold
is a castle. What is a castle? It's my domain,
right? It's something a man or a woman
or a society or a people build, and they say, this is ours. You
can't have it. Isn't that what a castle is?
Paul says in our warfare, we break down these castle walls.
We assault these castle walls. By the power of God, they're
pulled down. Paul calls them high things that
exalts itself against the knowledge of God. Just a few of these,
pride, pride. I have known some very moral
people in my life. I mean, people you can trust. We were talking this about Johnny
Aranda. There's a man I loved very much, and you could have
laid a $50 bill down on the table, walked off for two or three days,
left him in your house. When he left that house, he would
not have taken that $50. But he didn't know God. And he
had pride down in here. I'll tell you something else
he had. He had self-will. And we all got self-will by nature. And you know what free will really
is? It's self-will disguised in this
emotional, logical, religious language. Man is so important. that God would not offend your
free will. You best hope God Almighty breaks
down that castle wall that you call free will, because it is
nothing but self will. How could it not be? If you have
a free will, it's yours, right? You are self. And the scripture
condemns self will. And yet this religious world
thinks, well, I used to be a drunk, now I'm not. I'm okay, even if
I'm self willed. Paul says those castle walls
gotta come down. They gotta come down. High things
that exalt itself against the knowledge of God, that inner
being in us by nature that is ego. You know what ego is? Me, me, me. I have my rights. The Constitution
gives me the right to worship as I see fit. Okay, but God don't. God don't. Listen, now don't
you get me wrong, but the Constitution of the United States will not
be an excuse for anyone when they stand before God in the
judgment. Well, the government had no right
to tell me what kind of religion. God tells you what kind of religion
you better have. God demands we bow down to the
person and authority of His Son. And we all will, either by grace
now or by being forced to do so at the judgment. Everybody's
gonna bow to Jesus. You can mark that down. It'll
either be now in this life or it will be at the judgment. High
things. Pride, ego, my rights. I even heard this, my wife, well,
actually, correct that, mark that out. My wife heard this
and she repeated it to me. So it's secondhand to me. So
you could ask her and you'll get it straight from, I'm about
to use that phrase. I'm about to say the wrong thing.
About to say the wrong, thank you, Lord. I done exposed myself
already, though. I deserve to be loved. No, we don't. Now, God's law
commands that we love our neighbor as ourself, but we don't. The
fact is we can't. And when I first heard Henry
Mahan say this years ago, and I was a young grace preacher,
he said, the law doesn't demand that we love our neighbor. The
law demands we love our neighbor as ourself. Well, I deserve to
be loved. No, I deserve to be cast into
the midst of the darkness of the lake of fire forever. And I don't mean to be irreverent
here. Anybody ever watch some of those movies, what is it,
The Matrix? And the one man standing before this being or whatever,
and all of a sudden his mouth is sealed up and he can't utter
a word. One day, every mouth will be
what? Stopped. Stopped. And every individual upon the
face of this earth will realize that Jesus Christ is Lord to
the glory of God the Father, either under the justice of his
wrath or by the compassion of his free grace in Jesus Christ
the Lord. Isn't it amazing how we by nature
just twist the truth around always. We always get the proverbial
cart before the horse. We always do. We can say the
right thing. We can quote the scripture and
then imagine it to say something else. Now can't we? Did it all
the time when I was in religion. I'd read something and say, oh,
well that means this. No, it means what it says. The question is, is King Jesus
crushing my castle walls and saying, submit to the obedience
of my son? Now I've mentioned That one effect. Now I've mentioned this warfare's
effect, what it's really about, what it's really for. It's narrowing down this warfare's
reason to its most common denominator. Every thought brought to submit. You see it? Look at it, for the
weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God
to the pulling down of strongholds, casting down imaginations and
every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge
of God. And here is that one effect. and bringing into captivity
every thought, not to obedience to Christ, but to the obedience
of Christ. The submission is the obedience
that God works in us. We submit to his obedience. And folks, when God started doing
that to me, that was a warfare. I began to experience King Jesus
assaulting my castle walls. And all of this edifice that
I had built up around me, a part would crumble over here, so I'd
move over here. And then he'd shoot a volley
over here, and I'd move over there. So ultimately I felt,
and seeing there's so many holes in my castle, I can't keep him
out. By God's grace, I bowed down
and said, knock the door down, Lord, and put your foot on my
neck. I'm your servant. When this first started, I thought
I will not submit. I remember that man still, he's
still with, I read a song, he gave me a song to read to you
all this morning. God sent him to a little church
building up in the country in West Virginia. No gospel in that
building whatsoever, but that one individual had the gospel
down in his soul, and he was looking for a place to worship.
And he walked through the doors, and my world's never been the
same since. And when he began, he wasn't
a preacher or anything, just sat in the pews. I was a young preacher,
and he began to talk. And I said, no, that's not it. That's not the truth. Oh, God
caused the devil to quit making me doubt my salvation. I'm glad
God kept on making me doubt. Because I wasn't doubting, I
was doubting my salvation. And bless God, if God ever brings
you to start doubting your salvation and look unto his salvation,
he will be bringing you somewhere. Well, that was our penchant,
my salvation. It ain't my salvation, it's his
salvation. And he gives it to us at his
sovereign pleasure. Every thought brought to submit
and bringing into captivity and submit to what? To Christ obedience. One effect, two facets. Now here's the question. Is this
the kind of warfare that I was assaulted by? woke up one day
and decided, you know I'm going to believe what Bethel Baptist
Church believes, and what John Chapman preaches. That ain't
it folks. That ain't it. Oh, God help you
if that's all you've been through. That ain't it. Even if you're
believing the truth. Because God's got to give you
love for the truth. And there's a big difference.
There's a big difference. But when none of us start out
loving the truth, we start out resisting the truth. and resisting
the truth and God keeps putting volley, after volley, after volley
of that dynamite against our castle walls until it begins
to crumble. We find we've got no refuge in
this castle anymore. I'm just saying, if it ain't
happened to you, I pray God Almighty it happened to you because that's
the way it's got to be. This has got to happen to you
or you'll be lost forever. Now let me wind down. Somebody
said, but pastor, not all who have their strongholds
assaulted are pulled down by this. I know people that's heard
the gospel and heard the gospel and heard the gospel and they
just go on about their merry way. That's true. That's true. And sometimes King Jesus may
just put a couple of volleys over their bow. just a couple
volleys over their bow, and then just turn and march away, because
he's not determined to conquer that castle. Or there may be
some castles that he just passes by altogether. Why? Because there's a particular
single castle right over there that he's a purpose from all
eternity to assault and break down, and the rest of them, he's
not concerned about it. He's got that one castle, that
woman, not very liked in town here,
a Samaritan woman. And she's coming to the well
by herself. Jesus, how many other hundreds
of people do you think Jesus Christ passed by in Jerusalem's
way and went, must, needs, the book says, go to Samaria. Why? Because there was one castle
there God had purposed, God the Father had purposed for him to
tear down. bring that woman into subjection
to himself. And she was a religious woman.
She knew Messiah was coming. That's more than what a lot of
folks knew. But Christ still told her, woman, you worship,
you don't know what. Those that worship God, M-U-S-T,
must worship him in spirit. That's not this. That's this. You gotta worship him in here.
And in what else? Truth. We don't get to decide
what we want to believe or who we want to believe. We either
believe what God says and who God says, or he's never assaulted
your castle wall. So my last point. This warfare,
again, is no one-time event. Turn to Colossians chapter one. Colossians 1. All right, Colossians 1, verse 18.
And He, this is speaking of Christ, look at the context later, you'll
see. And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the
beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things
He might have the preeminence, for it pleased the Father that
in Him should all fullness dwell. So if I'm looking at, toward,
or upon anything else but him, I am looking at what? Nothing. If he's in him, not there, since,
since all fullness dwells in him, if I want to look at fullness,
where do I look? To him and him alone. That in all things, he might
have the preeminence, but why? Why him? Because God said so. You remember Mordecai? And Haman hated Mordecai. Haman
was an old unbelieving Gentile rebel. Haman was a believing
Jew, was looking forward to the coming of the Messiah. Haman
wanted Mordecai dead. And next thing you know, Haman
sees Mordecai riding on the king's horse. And someone says to the
king, but why should Mordecai ride on the king's horse? If you're a king, you've got
the right to say, because I said so. You know what I used to tell
my kids when they were young? When I told them to do something,
they said, well, why do I gotta do that? I didn't try to explain
it to them. I said, because I said so. Now, did that guarantee they
knew Christ? No, it certainly didn't. But you still tell the
truth no matter what. You see, we are to raise our
children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, not because that
will guarantee their conversion, but because that pleases God.
Because that honors his son. We leave the results of that
up to him. It may drive them into rebellion
against God. They may kick against that authority
and build up their castle walls even stronger. And King Jesus
might just march right on by them. But if God chose them,
You hear me now? If God chose them, he will stop
at their castle wall at his appointed day, and he will begin to engage
in this warfare against their castle wall, and they will bow
to Christ, whether you ever see it or not, because he's doing
this for his glory, not for our comfort. Oh, I'd love to see
my children converted, but this ain't for my comfort. This is
for the glory and the honor of his son. and he may kill me on
the way home this evening. And I never see my children's
conversion, but if they're one of the elect of God, bless God,
they will be saved. They will be saved. Colossians
1, let's move on. For it pleased the Father that
in him should all fullness dwell, and having made peace through
the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto
himself. By him, I say, whether they be
things in earth or things in heaven. And you that were sometime,
do you see this, alienated, and enemies in your mind by wicked
works, yet now hath he reconciled, how? In the body of his flesh
through death. Right there was the warfare being
settled forever, even though battles are still taking place. in the body of His flesh through
death to present you holy and unblamable and unreprovable in
His sight, if ye continue." Now is that what the book says or
not? That's what it says, does it
not? You see, I think a lot of people, a few volleys You've been crashed
into a castle wall of theirs. And they say, I better profess
this Christ this gospel preacher's talking about. And the gospel
preacher, he doesn't know whether this is real or not. And this
book doesn't tell us to hem somebody up in a room for two or three
weeks and examine them doctrinally and morally and see if they're
fit for baptism, does it? Person says, I believe God's
done something for my soul. God showed me who I am, who Christ
is, and I want to be baptized. You know what me as a Gospel
preacher is supposed to do? Go to the creek, fill up the
baptistry. Do what? Well, baptize them. Not examine them. Not give them
two or three months to see if they measure up. You remember
Simon the magician, the sorcerer? Philip baptized him, didn't he?
And followed along with Philip, Peter comes along and realizes
something's amiss. His heart, his heart was not
right in the sight of God. God gave Peter that illumination. Let me tell you something, either
we continue in the faith or we'll perish. It's that simple. but it is also
that profound. Heavenly Father, use your word
as only you can do, whether to reprove us, to give us rebuke
or to encourage us and admonish us and strengthen us. Lord, you
know what each and every person in this building needs at this
very hour. Lord, we submit to your way and
your purpose your Christ, in His name, amen.